RISD Art Circle (RAC) Archive
RAC Archive
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20162017

Sarah • Jamey • Angel • Nicole • Maxine • Kailey • Gina • Josephine • Lauren • Cole • Noeh • Isabelle

Field trip & project locations: RISD Museum | Granoff Center | 186 Carpenter Street | The Dirt Palace | The WARP Collective | PVD Fest at Dexter Park

A group of twelve teens in matching white shirts poses happily in two rows.

This year was about being together

and being in public.

Making a Mission Statement

The 2016–17 RISD Art Circle aspires to create a welcoming community for teens to explore what matters to them through collaborations, investigating the creative process, and working with artists.

orange blobby X shape

What Pops

Exploring Pop Art through observation and art making

December 18, 2016 — RISD Museum

In the Fall season of 2016 the RISD Art Circle (RAC) members held a workshop so that people could learn more about pop art and not just look at art, but also to create it. This project gave people an outlet to express what they thought or how they felt through hands on experience, visual involvement in the RISD Museum, and the education of art history. RAC was committed to do the “What Pops” event to get people visiting the museum to creat and learn about certain art forms and concepts. RAC designated pop art to be the focus of the project since pop art conveys a message in an unconventional and convivial way.

(un)Touchable

An exhibition of touchable art by RISD, Brown, and high school students

April 19 – May 7, 2017, Granoff Center for the Creative Arts

RAC worked with Emily Sellon, a graduate student at Brown in Public Humanities, to curate an exhibition of touchable art at the Granoff Center for the Creative Arts located on the Brown University Campus. The call for art was open to Brown, RISD, and local high school students. RAC reviewed 53 submissions from college students, one submission from RAC, and one high school student submission. Submissions represented a huge variety of media and approaches to the concept of “touchable art”. RAC was given complete curatorial freedom over the exhibition with the exception of artwork determined by the Granoff building managers not able to be safely displayed. The exhibition was displayed throughout three floors of the Granoff Center. RAC members were also involved in the process installation and learn how to hang objects at eye-level, discussed ADA compliance and other factors . RAC members invited friends and family to attend the opening reception and a performance where they were able to meet many of the artists.

Emily Sellon: Quote Need

Cranston Street Armory Animated By Art

PVD Fest Finale

June 4, 2017 at Dexter Park

A white woman in a long light purple wig and a sequined fanny pack sings into a microphone while dancing in a U-haul filled with bright inflatable rock instruments

In partnership with the City of Providence Department of Art, Culture and Tourism, RAC and the RISD Museum Artist Fellow Walker Mettling were involved in “Cranston Street Armory Activated by Art” an experimental auxiliary arm of PVD Fest that took place Sunday June 4th in Dexter Field adjacent to the Cranston St. Armory. Many different organizations, businesses and artists converged on the park that day. In the northwest corner of the park RAC and Walker worked to bring together local creators to transform five rented U-Haul moving trucks into exciting interactive experiences. 

Working with eight different artists each truck became project space. García Sinclair and Nafis White transformed their truck into a menu karaoke bar. Kylie Why, along with several artist assistants gave festival goers makeovers and manicures for a single nail. Unknown Studios is a collective of young self-taught artists who produced 200 bandanas and tote bags in a live screen printing session. Rachel Blumberg Percussion Garden was an interactive, community focused sonic installation, made from found objects and existing percussion instruments. The RISD Art Circle teens and Walker Mettling created a pop up gallery of new works generated onsite and registered 150 people for the Artists Membership. 

Micah Salkind:

Working with the RISD RAC teens and affiliated artists allowed ACT and its partners to prototype new methods for working in the public realm. The experiences curated by the group brought sound artists, performance artists, and hands-on art-making into the project in innovative and exciting ways.

A U-haul van is parked by a park and some houses. A large banner with a brick pattern and three four-eyed lions hangs from the truck, and a big sign that says 'More that 0,000,000 artists processed' with replaceable numbers leans against the truck.

Because We’re Curious

Interactive installation in a weird hallway

May 2017 – February 2018, RISD Museum

This year was excited to radiate out from the Museum, but kept coming to the question: When people come to the museum, what will they find?